The Supreme Court Strikes Down DOMA, As Narrated in GIFs

The year is 1965, and Thea Spyer wants Edie Windsor to know something.

image

The two of them date, cohabitate, and fall in love. When they decide to get married, they jet off to Canada, where it’s legal.

image

By now, it’s 2007. New York has a policy that recognizes gay marriages that were performed in other jurisdictions, so in the eyes of the state, they’re hitched.

image

Uh, New York. Right. Cute. Anyway.

Sadly, Thea died in 2009, leaving Edie a pretty big inheritance.

image

The state demanded about 300 large in estate taxes on this money, which Edie wouldn’t have to pay if she qualified for a “spousal deduction,” a benefit straight couples get. So she sued in the district court.

image

The law that deals with all of this is the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. Edie’s case specifically is about section 3, which, among other things, defines a married couple as a man and a woman, and a bunch of other stuff to that effect.

image

So the BLAG was all,

image

Buuuut the district court said that section 3 was unconstitutional under the fifth amendment.

(While this happened, a group called the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, or BLAG, seriously, BLAG, which is part of the House of Representatives, intervened on behalf of the government. This is important later.)

image

On appeal, the Second Circuit agreed that section 3 was unconstitutional. At this point, the Obama administration stopped enforcing DOMA and publicly announced that it disagrees with the legislation. But it dutifully filed a petition to SCOTUS anyway.

image

SCOTUS is asking three questions about Windsor’s case. The first one, obviously, is if section 3 of DOMA is constitutional.

image

The second one is if the suit is even a thing, because the U.S. obviously actually agrees with the second circuit.

image

The third one is whether BLAG even has the right to be a party to the case under Article III.

image

By a 5-4 ruling, SCOTUS declares DOMA unconstitutional. Marriage falls under the provisions of equal protection.